The present invention relates generally to imaging systems, and more particularly to imaging systems including systems for capturing and transferring an image to a pad of transfer medium.
There are many types of printing systems available today. These systems include dot-matrix, thermal printers, electrostatic image transfer, ink ejectment, and the like. These systems are adapted for printing successive images on individual sheets of separate pages drawn from a paper reserve stack. There are many different mechanisms for extracting individual sheets and directing them to the image application portion of the printer. What these printers have in common is that the printing systems are adapted for accessing, controlling, routing and printing a single sheet at time.
Pads of note paper, such as Post-It® brand sticky note pads available from 3M Corporation of Minnesota, are well known. These pads include stacks of pages releasably secured to each other with a tacky adhesive that permits an individual page to be removed from the pad and re-adhered to another surface. This feature of releasable securement to successive surfaces is a desirable trait of these products.
Currently to produce an image on a sticky note, a user either writes or otherwise applies some text or graphic element on the topmost page of the pad of sticky note. Later, the user removes the note to reposition it to the desired location. It would be advantageous to use a printing system to apply the element to the sticky note page. However, the current printing systems are incapable of printing on such a pad. 3M offers a solution for printing on a preformed matrix of single layer note pages arranged in a standard 8″×11″ format for running through a conventional printer.
This solution has disadvantages in that it requires access to, and use of, a full-size printer and associated computer system to reproduce the element on the note. Also, the user has to obtain pages of the special format, as well as special software for use in cooperation with the computer system operating the printer.
There are cameras designed for producing hardcopy facsimiles of images captured through an optical field-of-view. These cameras require a special package of film for producing instant hardcopy pictures. Examples include Polaroid instant cameras using instant film and peel-apart film. The instant film implements a self-developing process in which the image is captured and developed directly on the film and not transferred. Polaroid also makes an iZone camera that includes both digital “film” and a special version of instant film. Digital film records an image in onboard memory, and the image is later transferred to a separate machine (computer or special printer) to print hardcopies of desired images from the digital film. The instant film for the iZone develops a captured image directly on the film and includes a semi-tacky adhesive backing for temporary attachment of the picture to another surface. These solutions have the drawback that the instant cameras only provide instant images when used with instant film. The instant film is a specialty product that is not widely available, and has a cost that is not insubstantial.